Meat storage mistake in fridge everyone makes that could cause E.coli and Salmonella

When it comes to storing your food, it's extremely important to place everything in the right place, as not doing so can actually lead to you becoming ill. Even when everything is stored in your fridge, the way the food is arranged inside can quietly spread harmful bacteria and contaminate everything else you eat.

Kitchen experts at Plumbworld have highlighted that even small mistakes when arranging your fridge can lead to E. coli, Salmonella, and Campylobacter, which can, in turn, lead to food poisoning. This danger can arise from one simple kitchen mistake: storing raw meat on the upper shelves. Even tightly wrapped packs can leak small amounts of juice that drip onto foods below, causing them to also become contaminated.

While many people think contamination only comes from undercooked food, the actual risk begins long before the cooking process begins, and recent research has found that even the outside of raw meat packaging can harbour dangerous bacteria.

In one large study, conducted by the Health Protection Agency and published in the Journal of Food Protection, 3,662 samples of prepackaged raw meat were tested to see how much contamination existed on their external packaging, the part people touch when unpacking or rearranging the fridge.

Salmonella was found on two of the samples, while Campylobacter appeared on over 1% of packaging, particularly from chicken and game fowl. While traces of E. coli, a bacterium linked to faecal contamination, were found on around 4% of packages.

This contamination can be easy to miss when organising your fridge, but there are steps you can take to minimise the risk to your health.

Keep raw meat, poultry, and fish on the bottom shelf in a sealed, leak-proof container or on a plate, and toss ready-to-eat items and leftovers higher up so they can't be splashed or dripped on. This simple layout change significantly reduces cross-contamination.

It's also important to regularly clean your fridge, ensuring that any spills are cleaned immediately with warm, soapy water or a food-safe antibacterial spray.

Ensure that you deep-clean your fridge every few weeks and that the temperature is kept below 5°C, as this will prevent bacteria from growing.

You should also use separate cleaning cloths for raw and cooked areas, both in the fridge and the kitchen as a whole, to avoid spreading bacteria.

Similarly, overcrowding the shelves can block airflow, creating warm spots that could make bacteria multiply faster, so be sure that you don't overstock the fridge and keep some space free.

When putting away your shopping, you should also be careful when handling any raw meat. The experts advise washing your hands thoroughly after putting your groceries in the fridge.